Korea needs immigration to survive. That is true for any advanced industrialized country in which people have fewer and fewer children while living longer and longer. But it is particularly true for Korea because Korea's birthrate is declining so rapidly. Yet Korea's treatment of immigrants, particularly those from poorer countries, continues to be tone-deaf and shitty. A recent survey showed that as of last year, 17.2% of school-age children born out of international marriages did not attend school. This is an astounding number for a country that has over 95% attendance rate for elementary, middle and high school.

Korean government does seem to realize the direness of the situation, as they increased the budget for assisting multicultural families by 52 times in the last four years. But as governments do, that budget is being administered in a ham-handed manner, robbing its effectiveness.

다문화 예산 4년간 52배 늘었는데 체감혜택 적은 까닭은 [Dong-A Ilbo]